Holding Up the Sky
by withthewildthings
Summary: Collab with Flyleafandvampires8. Takes place during the Titan's Curse, Anna  Jackson, Percy's twin sister, has to help her friends Margaret and Evangeline when they're kidnapped by the Titan Army. Luke/OC, Percy/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Collab. With flyleafandvampires8 (: I don't own anything, except Anna. **

**Anna's POV**

I'm trying to focus. I _swear_I'm trying to focus. But math class and an extremely ADHD Anna do _not_mix well. Ms. Carver did have my attention at the beginning of class, but then she started to drone on and on about monomials and polynomials and how 'It's all review, children, you should know this by 9th grade!' I don't know about everyone else, but it makes me want to slap her when she drawls out the word 'children' so condescendingly.

Besides, this room is full of distractions. I was at one of the best schools in New York City, but it wasn't easy to forget that it was a school for kids with 'issues'. I'd never stayed in the same school for over a year, and between my dyslexia and ADHD, I definitely fit into that category. The kid next to me was drumming on his desk with two pencils, and the fluorescent light above me kept flickering on and off like it couldn't decide whether or not to just die already. Plus I was sitting right by the window, and I could see the blue sky reflecting off the glittering lake outside, and the beautiful leaves, changing color for fall.

"... plus 3x-2 equals...?"

It was a simple problem, and almost everyone's hand shot up. I, of course, genius I am, had not been listening.

So, as my luck would have it, Ms. Carver's beady eyes searched the room for the one hand that wasn't up. Mine.

"Ms. Jackson? Surely you know the answer to such an easy _review_ problem?" She smirked. It was no secret that she hated me.

I glanced to the board where she had copied the problem for us, but it might as well have been written in Greek. Hahaha, I take that back, a _mortal_would've thought it was written in Greek. It would've been easier for me to solve if it had.

"We're waiting, Anna." I jumped off of my randomly winding train of thought.

"Umm, I'm guessing it's not 42, right?" 42 was my go-to answer.

"Thank you, Ms. Jackson, for eliminating one of our _millions_ of incorrect answers. Perhaps someone else was paying attention."

I spent a few minutes daydreaming of a minotaur ripping her head off, and then I felt better. Sadly, I was used to it. Teachers usually disliked me from the start.

I found myself drifting through my thoughts again, never learning the whole 'pay attention to the teacher' lesson. I absentmindedly sketched on the paper I was supposed to be working on, not sure of the design I was going for. Personally, I think that's how the best art starts- no planning, just free imagination.

I glanced at my paper.

Okay, so maybe free imagination with no boundaries was _not_always a good thing.

The eyes staring up at me from the paper were disturbing at the least. And so was the diagram of the school next to it. The way I had drawn it, so detailed... but a whole floor was missing. Like a bomb had just come in and BOOM! Gone. The rest of the school completely untouched.

Now, before you think I'm a melodramatic freak, let me explain a thing or two. I've always loved art. Always. It's an escape from reality for me. I carry a sketchbook around at all times. Now, my mom thought it was amazing that I had such natural talent, although she claims I had to have inherited some of my skill from her. By the time I was six, she started to notice a strange pattern about my work, though. I drew places I had never been, never heard of, so well that people thought it was a photograph. From the crooked trees to the hot dog stands on the street corners. Not only this, but in every picture, something awful was happening. The first picture I drew like this was when I was four. Simple finger painting, but I drew a ten car pile-up in Los Angeles. We heard about it on the news the next day. My mom, trying to mask her horror at my 'talent' had asked what the little squiggles coming from the cars were.

_"What are they, honey, smoke?"_

_"No, silly, the bodies are in the cars, those are the souls."_

_"Why are there so many souls, then?"_

_"Because, everyone went to heaven."_

There were no survivors of that crash, none in all ten cars.

37 people, dead. More than half younger than 30. Since then, my mom told me not to show my 'special drawings' to anyone but her, or my twin brother, Percy.

So, basically, my art predicts tragedy. And I had just drawn a pair of monster eyes with a third of my school _gone._ And we're not talking your average high school, this was a 6-12th grade school, there were probably 600 people on the third floor.

Oh, Hades.

_I'm,_ one of those 600.

I pulled out my emergency phone, getting ready to text Percy. I jumped as high as I could in a regulation school desk as thunder boomed outside.

Wait.

Thunder?

When I looked outside 10 minutes ago there wasn't a single cloud outside. Now there was a full blown storm, the type that could cause flooding.

Of course, I was the only one who found this odd.

I sighed mentally. It would be much harder to evacuate the school during a storm. The responsibility of being a demigod.

I glanced back outside, expecting to see nothing through the rain pelting the pavement, but instead, my sea-green eyes meet a pair of laughing, cruel ones on the other side of the glass, which registered in some part of my always-active brain as impossible, since I was on the third floor.

But these were the eyes from my picture.

I shrieked.

"_Andromeda Jackson, are you_texting! I don't suppose you could explain _why_ you're choosing to spend your time texting when you have a blank worksheet in front of you."

I automatically fell into the usual routine, trying to keep this as normal as possible. Distraction and drama.

"WELL, Ms. Carver, I'm actually very glad you asked. You see, I was working on this lovely assignment when all of a sudden, BOOM!, thunder claps through the sky. I must've jumped a mile. You see, I wasn't exactly expecting such awful weather. So, anyways, I jumped, right? And my pencil _falls out of my hand and rolls across the floor._ I know, it's horrible. And, you see, Percy accidentally put my pencil case in his backpack this morning, so I don't have an extra. I was trying to get his attention without disturbing the class, but he was working very hard on this, so I was forced to text him about the importance of supplying me with a writing instrument. But, I see I've interrupted the class despite my efforts. I am very sorry."

All of my teachers had learned by the third day of school not to ask me why I'm late for class. It usually takes a half hour explanation with the occasional catastrophe/explosion. The class usually loved these stories, though, and while Ms. Carver looked not-very-pleased, most of my classmates were trying to suppress their laughter.

"And, I suppose the whole time you were thinking through this plan, it didn't occur to you to get up and pick up the pencil?"

"No, ma'am. My mom says that I think outside the box."

Now I was pretty sure I could hear the entire class laughing.

"Ms. Jackson, I do _not_tolerate this behavior from a student-"

She was cut off by someone clearing their throat in the back of the room.

"Excuse me, Ms. Carver, but I think I'll take it from here."

I guess I kinda forgot that the vice principal was sitting in on our lesson.

"Ms. Jackson, Mr. Jackson, come with me, please."

"Mr. Melano, I'm sorry, but why do you need Percy?"

"Oh, this will be easier on all of you if you let them come quietly."

He was staring straight into Ms. Carver's eyes. I watched her gaze go out of focus. 'Let them come quietly?' Little alarm bells were ringing in my head. This did _not_sound good.

"Well... yes, I suppose... I suppose it won't be a problem, now will it? Go on, you two."

As we followed Mr. Melano, I locked eyes with Percy across the room, and I knew we were thinking the same thing.

_Monster_

**R&R, no flames, pleaseee (:**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own anything. I wish I did, though. **

**Margaret's POV.**

"You're going to get us _killed_one of these days."

"Bianca, be quiet."

"Marge, we're going to die."

"Bianca, I swear, shut up!"

Bianca di Angelo was leaned over on her desk, her head in her hands, shaking it. I always had this little tendency to drag Bianca into all of my evil schemes with me, and she hated it. But we were best friends, after all. Anyways, we were sitting at our table in math. The tables sort of made me feel like a pre-schooler again, like we were too irresponsible to be able to sit at a desk quietly. And you know what? In this school, they were totally right to give us tables.

Dr. Thorn, though he worked in the administrative office, taught my math class with Bianca. He both hated us, and I for one hated him back. Bianca was just scared of him, and I could totally understand why. He reminded me of Hitler. Currently, we had dropped to our knees and begun to sneak around the classroom, during this boring video we were watching. The class had started snickering, but Dr. Thorn was too busy grading our test that I knew I failed.

Oh well.

I was failing every subject anyways.

But what can you expect? I've gotten twelve detentions in a span of two weeks. The detention teacher was practically my second father, which is actually kind of creepy if you think about it. The principal was always disappointed in me slightly, like he expected something more from me, even though I had ADHD and dyslexia. I didn't really try, either. Not that it matters anyways.

My cell phone was on his other desk across the room, and I was itching to text my mom to get her to take me home. I usually made up some excuse, like the other students were making fun of me or that I didn't feel good. She always took me home. Never quite understood why, though, since I had done it so many times. But tonight was the dance, and I was very, very, very excited about it. We had some cute guys in our school.

I turned my attention back to Bianca who was a bit further ahead of me. "Stretch out your arm!" I yelled quietly. "You might be able to reach-"

Suddenly, something was slammed down on a desk. "Who's talking?" Dr. Thorn screamed. Bianca froze, her arm still outstretched, and I just sort of sat there. I tried hiding behind a desk nearby, but a hand came down on my shoulder before I even had the chance.

It was Dr. Thorn. I shrieked. Bianca grabbed my cell phone quickly, sticking it in her jacket pocket. We both turned around, and I said it before he even had the chance to. "I know, I know,"

"Detention." Bianca finished for me, and then sighed.

"No," Dr. Thorn said. "Follow me, you two."

Bianca peered over at me nervously. She looked scared.

"NOW!"

I scampered up and helped up Bianca. We stayed side by side, practically glued together, as we followed Dr. Thorn. I tried not to act scared, for it would just scare Bianca even more than she already was. So I kept a straight face, but my hands said otherwise. They were shaking uncontrollably. I wasn't as much scared of him as I was intimidated. He always looked like he wanted to tear my heart out, and I wouldn't be surprised if he attempted to one of these days. But the thing is with Dr. Thorn, he usually gives Bianca and me the punishment in front of the whole class as an embarrassment thing, and then gives us the detention slips. So of course my hands were getting all sweaty. He was reminding me of my math teacher last year-the first time I was attacked by a monster.

Yes, I am a demigod. Margaret di Mio, daughter of Hades. Half-Italian, half-American. Half-human, half-god. I haven't been attacked in years because of my mother, Angioletta di Mio, or Angie for short. She had put some protective shield over me with the help of my father, Hades, and it had been working. But now I was getting _very_nervous. You know, I always had this feeling that Dr. Thorn was a monster. I got even more nervous (if that was even possible) when he shoved Bianca and me rather roughly against the wall and whispered, "Stay here. If I come back and you are not here, I will hunt you down and kill you with my own hands. Is this understood?"

We nodded our heads shakily.

And then he walked off. Bianca grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me back and forth. "I told you we're going to die! I told you so!"

"Bianca, we're not going to die. Or at least, you're not."

"What do you mean by THAT?"

"They don't want you. They want _me_. I'm the daughter of Hades, not you."

"Daughter of HADES?" She screamed. "Marge, what are you TALKING ABOUT?"

"Listen to me and quit screaming! How much do you know about me, Bianca?"

"I know that your full name is Margaret Angioletta di Mio, named after your mother and grandmother. You were born in Italy and lived in Italy with your mother, younger brother, and stepfather. Then, once your brother died and your stepfather started abusing you and your mother, you left him in Italy and moved to America when you were six. Then you met Nico and me last year. I became your best friend, and Nico became a second brother to you. We became partners in crime, and here we are today."

"Do you remember what happened to us last year?"

"Y-Yeah. We had the same teacher."

"Good. Now, do you remember what happened to us on November 17th?"

"She hurt us and I got to come home with you."

"How did she hurt us?"

"She . . . she . . . sliced open our arms-" And then suddenly her face got a whole lot paler. "Oh, my god."

"I'm a demigod, Bianca," I tried smiling.

"My best friend is a demigod," She got up from the wall and ran her hand through her black hair. "Oh, my god, my best friend is a _freaking demigod_."

"You understand that you can't tell anyone, right?"

"Why would I do that? You know me better than that, Marge!"

And then suddenly I had an idea. I was friends with two other demigods: Andromeda Jackson (daughter of Poseidon) and Evangeline Peck (daughter of Athena). I hadn't talked to either of them in centuries, but they were mine and Bianca's only hope right now. So I snatched the phone out of Bianca's pocket and started a new text message.

**ANNA. HELP ME. MONSTER IN THE BUILDING!**

**~ Margeeee 3**(that was my signature on my phone)

I scanned through my contacts until I reached one labeled Andromeda Jackson and then selected it and sent it. Bianca peered over my shoulder and asked, "Who's Andromeda?"

"My . . . friend. She'll be able to help us," I paused. "Hopefully."

A few seconds later, a reply message came up on the screen.

**Where and who?**

**~~ AnNa ~~**(that was her signature)

I quickly texted back,

**Dr. Thorn. Outside of his classroom. He threatened to kill us if we moved.**

**~Margeeee 3**

Another text.

**Us?**

**~~ AnNa ~~**

I texted back quickly again.

**Bianca and me.**

**~Margeeee 3**

Yet another text. Dang, she's a fast texter.

**You've managed to drag Bianca into this, too? Oh gods. What am I ever to do with you, Margie? ;) I'll be there as quickly as I can be. Right now I'm having some monster problems of my own. :'(**

**~~ AnNa ~~**

I smiled to myself and texted back.

**:)**

**I'm sorry :/ I'll try and help you. But please come soon. Bianca is mortal, you know.**

**~Margeeee 3**

She texted back again, and the message scared me and shocked me.

**Bianca isn't mortal, Margie. She's a daughter of Hades, too. Your half-sister. Why do you think you two get along so well?**

**~ AnNa ~~**

Bianca obviously saw my paled face.

"W-What?" She asked.

"Nothing."

**She's not? Well, that explains a whole lot. Anyways, I'll send up some of my ghosts to help you. I won't tell Bianca about her father.**

**~Margeeee 3**

I was still pale and shocked. My cell phone vibrated again and I saw the message, but didn't text back. There was no need.

**Thank you, Margiee. Let's get this over with so we can go to the dance tonight, shall we? Adios, mi amiga. ;)**

**~ AnNa~**

And just then, a loud roar of thunder boomed throughout the school and Bianca and I shrieked. I was instantly reminded of how petrified of storms I was. Like, freeze-right-where-I-am petrified. Bianca was scared of them, too, but not nearly as bad as I was. She peeked her head in the window and I followed her gaze. What was once the clear, sunny, blue sky was now a sickly bluish purplish sky. There was lightning in the distance and then another loud boom of thunder. I shrieked again.

"We need to get out of here," Bianca said. "Hey, you're the demigod! Do something already!"

I touched the skull ring in my index finger and closed my eyes, focusing my energy. I hadn't done something like this in months, and I deeply afraid of passing out and leaving Bianca to fend for herself. But she had asked me to do something, so I must most definitely do it. She was my little sister after all, even if only by a few months. Then, the ring turned into a three foot sword made solely of Stygian iron. I hadn't seen it in so long I had almost forgotten what it looked like. And back then, I hoped I would forget it.

Bianca stepped back a good few feet. "Whoah."

"I take that as a compliment?" I smirked.

She smirked back.

Yep.

That's two Italian sisters for you.

Anyways, I put my sword to the tiled ground and simply said, "Serve me."

And that was when all of the Underworld broke loose.

Literally.

**So, I wrote the first chapter, but this was my amazing friend (:**

**Reviews are wonderful (:**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry if it's been awhile, my friend and I have a habit of writing everything out of order. So hopefully more updates soon (:**

**I'm not Rick Riordan, I simply can't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Oh, but if I did…)**

**Evie's POV**

So, get this: today was actually going really well. Better than I expected, but I usually expect the worst. Although, that could all change. I was sitting in English, A.K.A. the one class that keeps me off the All A's honor roll. Being a fairly smart kid with dyslexia and attention-span issues sucked.

But it might not be all that bad. We were studying Greek Mythology, which I'm rather informed about. To be specific, today we were _reading_ about the gods. Like, out loud. Basically, I would've rather faced an angry Cyclops than get called on by Mrs. Parker.

Yeah, you heard me right. Cyclops. If you haven't guessed by _now_ that I'm a demigod, then you're really stupid, then I guess I better give you the details.

My name is Evangeline Peck, daughter of Athena. My friends, Anna and Margie, called me Evie. Or, occasionally, to get on my nerves, Wise Girl. It made me want to punch them, but here's the thing about having two daughters of the Big Three as your best friends; when you punch them, they punch back. Harder. So, usually I resisted certain violent tendencies.

I actually hadn't talked to either of them since the summer. Or, more specifically, the funeral. I don't like to talk about it. Actually, the only person who could tell you the exact story was Anna, who just so happened to be the only person who refused to talk about it in any terms. If anyone asked about it, she glared at you in this really upset you're-lucky-I'm-not-holding-a-knife kinda way and rubbed her left arm like it hurt. She was different from before, and she was hurting. She did a marvelous job at hiding it, but I had known her long enough to know that this had seriously messed her up.

"Evie, could you continue with the next paragraph?" Mrs. Parker asked.

Crap. I have to stop getting lost in thought so often

"Ummm… could you please remind me where we are?"

The class snickered as my English teacher looked at me impatiently.

"Thank you for paying attention, Miss Peck. Page 134, paragraph 5."

I cleared my throat. "The oldest dogs wanted to reserve ties with the titans-"

"Actually, Evie that was, 'The oldest gods wanted to severe ties with the titans." She looked at me empathetically. "Andrew, please continue where Evie left off."

I looked down at my paper in frustration. Gods, I _hate_ dyslexia. Everyone thought I was an idiot. It couldn't be more obvious from the looks I was getting.

I stared out the window at the raging thunderstorm. I hadn't noticed it too much earlier, but it was getting really awful. Thunderstorms are only supposed to last a few minutes, right? So, why has this one been going on for an hour?

I looked at my textbook, figuring I might as well _try_ to pay attention. But, right when I was about to go all I'm-a-model-student on everyone, the lights flickered off. Several of the girlie-girl freaks in my class shrieked, mostly seeking attention.

"Alright now, everyone, calm down it's just a little blackout caused by the storm."

"Mr. Morrison, come to the main office. Mr. Morrison to the main office, _immediately,_ please," a voice crackled the PA system.

From what I could see in the limited lighting, Mrs. Parker's face paled ten shades. You see, our school had a code for when to go into lockdown, that way if a murderer comes in they don't just announce over the PA, "Oh, hey guys, by the way, we need to go into the lockdown so that we aren't all killed by this psychotic guy roaming the hallways for innocent children. In other news, today's lunch special is Mystery Meat!"

"Okay, so we're going into lockdown. Everyone, please calmly and _orderly_ make your way to the corner-"

"But it's just a drill,_ right?"_

"Well, I'm not sure…" She tried to reply, but was cut off with the utter chaos that filled the room.

"OHMYGOD, we're gonna die!"

"Shut up, you idiot!"

"If there's a murderer-"

"Hey, are you going skating Friday night?"

"_Children!_ Everyone quiet _now!_ To the corner!"

She locked the door and switched the light off, in case the power was to come back on. All the shades were drawn. Basically, it was dark and eerily silent compared to the commotion from just moments ago.

But… I had a weird feeling. Not one of those I-have-to-go-to-the-bathroom-or-I'll-explode feelings, more like…instinct. I felt danger. And, as a demigod, I'd learned how to follow my instincts a long time ago.

So, I did something either incredibly stupid or incredibly brave. Possibly both. From my seat by the door, I reached up to grab the keys from where Mrs. Parker had hung them back up on the hook. In one swift movement I unlocked the door and stepped outside. I could hear the entire population of Room 783 talking about how crazy I was, and Mrs. Parker would be _beyond_ angry. If this didn't work, I was sooo gonna be expelled.

As soon as I had shut the door I locked it from the outside so I wouldn't be followed. Now that I think about it, it was really stupid to put a lock on the outside of the classroom. With the number of crazy students here, anyone could randomly grab the key and lock a whole class in. Hmm. Design flaw.

I stood absolutely still and listened. Now was one of those times that I'm super thankful for my demigod hyper senses. We usually have really good hearing and sight, much better than a mortal's, and right now I was using that to my full advantage. I could hear a slight disturbance upstairs… a struggle? But Margie wasn't on the third floor…

_Anna and Percy._ Oh, Hades. Knowing the Jackson twins, if I went up those stairs, there would be trouble.

But, hey, why let trouble find you when you can find trouble?

I walked up the flight of stairs quickly but cautiously, knowing that while monsters might have awful eyesight, they have excellent hearing.

_Thank gods I'm not in heels._ My footfalls were practically silent, a trick I had learned from Anna and Margie. Margie always blended with the shadows, and could move as silently as she wanted, and Anna was one of those people with natural grace and years of experience that have taught her to be stealthy.

Yeah, you do _not_ want to meet those two in a dark alley.

I peered around the corner cautiously and stifled a gasp.

I hate to be cryptic about this, but I couldn't see much. A pool of dark liquid lay on the tile floor, and it looked like _someone_ was threatening a girl with a knife…_ Anna?_

If they caught Anna…

Well, wherever Anna was, Percy wouldn't be far.

Hopefully I had backup.

I pulled out a knife (don't even_ ask_ where I had stored that) and crept down the hall, clinging to the darkness for cover. Luckily, the emergency lights hadn't come on yet. I wouldn't be seen.

A man was holding a knife against Anna's neck. Dried blood matted her dark, curly hair, and shone on her pale skin. HADES, this was _not_ a good situation.

The man was tall and very familiar looking, though I couldn't quite place where I had seen—

Mr. Melano! Mr. Melano, as in, _our vice principal_. This was the same school that Chiron had assured us would be safe. That's why he pulled so many strings to get us all in. Maybe he had jinxed it with so many half-bloods. Huh. I hope I'm not the only one seeing the irony here.

I knew I didn't have much time if I wanted to be of any help here. So, I followed my instinct, seriously hoping I wasn't making a huge mistake. Oh, what the Hades? They already had grounds to expel me. Might as well go out with a boom.

And that was when I threw a 10-inch knife straight into our vice principal's back.


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own PJO.**

**Told you I'd update a lot ;)**

**Anna's POV**

Sometimes I think phones may be the best invention made. I'm a big multi-tasker, and right now, my phone was acting as a watch, a communication device, and a flashlight.

"Light switch, light switch…" I was muttering to myself again.

I wasn't alone, but Percy was very unconscious at the moment, and I really don't like the uneasy feeling this silence gave me. Not to mention the fact that I can't see 3 inches in front of my face without my phone.

So, Mr. Melano? Definitely a monster. I don't know what kind, because as soon as we were out of sight I was knocked unconscious before I could blink, let alone scream for help. All I knew now was that I was in a small, dark room, with Percy, my dying phone, and the alarming amount of blood flowing from the top of my head.

So, yeah, I figured the best thing to do was to shine some light on the situation.

Apparently I wasn't _very_ unconscious, because I had woken up when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Mr. Melano must be a pretty dumb monster, leaving it with me. Then again, the 4% of battery left probably wouldn't do me much good, anyway.

It had been one of my demigod friends, Margaret, texting me. Margaret and I were pretty close, but we hadn't talked since summer at Camp. Well, we had talked a little, enough for me to find out that she was good friends with a new girl, Bianca Di Angelo. I had drawn something later that day, and ever since then, I've been pretty sure that Margaret and Bianca are half-sisters, daughters of Hades. I only hoped my picture never came true, because otherwise Bianca wasn't going to make it to Camp. But my pictures always came true.

Margie said she was having monster problems; there were monsters in the building. Well. Tell me something I don't know. I wanted to help, it sounded like she was in a bad situation, but, unfortunately, so was I. Luckily, Margaret and Bianca were a year younger than me, and weren't on the top level, which is where Percy and I were, unless we had been dragged to a lower floor. I wasn't too worried about Margaret though, I know that she's been freaked out since her math teacher attacked her last year, but she's a fighter. She probably only called me because I had more training. Actually, I had 8 years more training. So, maybe she would need my help.

I shook my ADHD head, wincing at the pain that motion brought. _Anna, Anna, Anna, you can't help anyone else if you can't help yourself._ I'd always felt pretty protective of Margie, so when the blue light from my cell phone dimmed more than I thought possible without dying altogether, I felt a little panicked.

LIGHT SWITCH!

Well, it's about time.

I flicked it on and took in my surroundings. Percy and I had been dumped in a crowded 5x5 janitor's closet, complete with mop, water bucket… Water bucket!

I crawl over, suddenly overcome by dizziness. I was bleeding _a lot. _I reach a hand in and grab a fist full of water (okay, I know how weird that sounds, but I _am_ the daughter of Poseidon. I can do stuff like that) and throw it on Percy's face, like most people would throw a snowball. I add a slap, which may have been unnecessary, but it sure felt good, since he _was_ the one who hid my phone charger.

"Whaa… where… Anna? Anna, oh my gods, what happened to you?" Percy was looking concerned as he saw the blood dripping down from the wound on my head.

"Well... I'm really not sure. Apparently it's much easier for our enemies to knock you unconscious. They had to do _this_," I gestured at my head, "to make sure I wouldn't wake up too soon.

"Always knew you had a thick skull." Percy said, grinning, but the concerned look stayed in his eyes. I was suddenly glad I slapped him while I had the chance.

"Hey, Anna? Don't kill me for this, okay?" Without giving me time to react, and moving too quickly for me to follow without succumbing to my dizziness, he grabbed the mop bucket.

And poured the water. All. Over. My. Head.

I had taken in his words, and I fight my first reflex, which is to _slowly, painfully _kill him, or find a towel. Hmmm. Maybe not in that order. It really was freezing.

But then I felt the pain in my head subside and I slumped back against the locked door (I had already tried the door knob several times.) The water had healed the gash in my head better than any doctor could. All that remained was a small, but still fairly bothersome headache.

"I'm not sure whether to thank you or kill you, so I'll just do this." I grabbed the mop and wrung it out over his head.

"Alright, maybe I deserved that, but I had to make sure you would heal quick, and fixing that slowly would've been much more painful." He was smiling that annoying smile, the one that clearly says that he can tell you won't have a counter-argument.

"Fine, _thank you_, Perseus." It bothered him when I called him by his first name.

"You're very _welcome_, Andromeda."

I smirked at him. "Touché."

"So, any idea how long we were out of it?" He asked, taking in our surroundings.

"Well, I woke up about fifteen minutes ago. It's only 1:30. Margie and her friend Bianca are in a bit of a monster problem as well." I found it amazing that just a little over an hour ago I was in class like normal. But I wasn't too surprised; unfortunately being attacked by teachers was the norm for kids like us.

"And if Margie and Bianca are having problems…"

"… Evie's having problems, too." I finished for him. Hades. I hadn't thought about our friend Evangeline. She was also in eighth grade, and she was a daughter of Athena. Evie was pretty special, because her mom was a child of Zeus, so she had demigod blood on both sides of her family.

"We'll worry about it soon. We need a way out." I figured we'd start with escape.

"And I'm guessing that door's locked."

"Do you honestly think I would be sitting with _you_ in a _janitor's closet_ if it wasn't?"

"Good point. Well, I guess we just have to look for another way out…"

We did. Apparently our friend Mr. Melano had thought through his plan pretty well, because the door was _somehow_ magically enhanced, because it looked like normal wood, but when Percy tried slicing it with Riptide sparks flew off the celestial bronze like he had been drawing his sword against metal. I was going to pick the lock, but it must've been bolted by the outside or something because there was no keyhole I could see. The door completely sealed us off from the rest of the world; there wasn't even light coming through from the bottom.

Oh, please gods don't let us run out of oxygen.

I hadn't realized I was scared until now. I could see Percy struggling to keep it together, and decided not to mention the whole oxygen thing.

Right as we were about to look for air vents, which was a last resort, what with the storm outside, the door popped open.

Percy practically fell backwards, and I tumbled after him, seeing as we had both been leaning on the door. (Did I mention it was a _small_ closet?)

I looked up and felt more grateful about being friends with Margie than I ever had. Two ghosts, both looking like soldiers, were floating above us. Any normal person would have been scared to death at the sight; two greenish ghosts, which sometimes looked stable, but when they moved you could see their skeleton, in a pitch-black dark hallway, framed by the window through which we could see the storm that had escalated to something like a hurricane.

I, however, had never been normal.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" I said, feeling like I could breathe again.

"Glad to be a help, ma'am." The one on my right said. They saluted and floated straight through the ceiling.

"I think the school's gone into lockdown." I said observing the blackness surrounding me. I was about to pull out my sword, which omitted a slight glow as a light source, when I felt a knife at my neck

Like I said, it was _really_ dark. It was not my fault I couldn't see this coming.

But with my luck, I probably should have anyways.

"_Andromeda Jackson, don't you dare move a muscle."_ A chilling voice said in my ear.

"_Perseus, walk with us or your sister dies."_

Percy and I are pretty bad at following instructions. And every once in a while we can do that cool thing that you always see twins do in movies, where we both think the same thing. So I wasn't surprised when Percy gave a very realistic painful scream, and I quickly twisted out of Mr. Melano's grip in the split second he was distracted. We both knew that if Mr. Melano was going to kill us, he would've done it while we were unconscious, so he needed us for something, and if he thought Percy had just stabbed himself… Well, he was going to get in trouble with his boss. Whoever _that_ was.

I _was_ surprised when Mr. Melano slumped over dead. The emergency lights flickered on, and I saw that it hadn't been Percy's knife that killed him. Percy looked as confused as I felt. I ignored the blood trickling down my neck where he cut me and looked around the dimly lit hall. If it wasn't Percy, who…?

And, grinning mischievously, Evangeline Peck stepped out from the shadows and retrieved her knife from the monsters back.


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own PJO. Unfortunately. That would be amazing.**

**Margaret's POV**

Now I was flipping out.

Dr. Thorn still hadn't come back yet, and of course, when I assured Bianca I would be able to safely get her, Nico, and myself out of the school, she would refuse and say we should 'stay put'. So I did what she had suggested, but my hands were still sweaty and clammy and my Stygian iron sword had turned back into my skull ring. I was surrounded with a bunch of soldiers from the World Wars, and it was freaking Bianca out. What she didn't know is that only demigods could see them. She tried to make conversations with them, but they didn't really have anything to talk about, considering that they were from the 1940s, and she was from the 21st Century. One time, I almost banned them back to the Underworld when Bianca said that one of them looked like they were going to eat her.

But they obeyed me. It's not like they had a choice anyways.

I had sent some to Anna, and I only hoped that she received their help. I told those soldiers to listen to Anna or whoever was in charge.

Oh yeah.

Anna.

You see, Anna was the first person I had met when I moved to America. I could always speak English, but I was also fluent in Italian. Anna found it cool how I could speak in both languages, and didn't even have an accent. Anyways, my mother and her mother were good friends, but Anna suddenly disappeared a year ago, when I was twelve. So I never talked to her again until I recently found out I was a demigod. Turns out Anna was at some camp for demigods called Camp Half-Blood with her twin brother, Percy Jackson, and she had made some very good friends with some of the kids there.

She insisted upon me coming to camp, but due to my father, I knew I wasn't going to make very many friends, but I went anyways. There, I met some of the best friends I've had in a lifetime. There was Evangeline Peck, or Evie for short, and Luke Castellan. But Luke was not to be mentioned.

EVER.

I refused to talk about him, under any circumstances whatsoever. Anyways, I stopped going to Camp Half-Blood when Luke . . . well . . . when Luke left.

I became a normal seventh grader and there I met Bianca and Nico di Angelo. They were almost identical to me, with their olive skin, dark eyes, and black hair. It was haunting how much Nico looked like my little brother.

My mom remarried when I was a little girl and I had a three year-old brother named Arrigo di Mio, but I always called him Ari. He died, though, when my stepfather hit him a bit too hard. My stepfather was also not to be mentioned though I barely remembered him. It's all kind of fuzzy. I died by Ari's side so I guess you could say that I have this special connection with Nico now. Nico resembles my brother quite a bit-and it's actually still quite frightening how much he resembles Ari. I am actually VERY close with Nico. I have been often told by Bianca about how jealous she is of my relationship with him. It makes me smile and feel special, because I honestly love the kid. He's like my own. I would do absolutely anything for him and Bianca. Now that I knew that they were demigods, that was about to be tested to a fine line.

ANYWAYS, Bianca still looked pretty scared. She looked even more scared when footsteps lingered throughout the hallway. I immediately placed her behind me and placed an arm in front of her. "Stay behind me, Bianca."

She clutched my arm tightly. "O-Okay."

The footsteps came to a halt in front of us. But there was nothing there. Nothing at all. That alone was enough to scare the crap out of Bianca. She dug her black-painted fingernails into my skin rather hard and I inhaled sharply.

"W-What was that?" She whimpered.

"I don't know," I turned to four of my ghosts. "Find them and bring them to the stairs."

"Yes, young master." They turned and walked off.

I whispered to Bianca, "I want you to listen to me carefully, all right?"

"All right."

"We're going to leave. We've waited long enough. We need to find Nico. Do you know where he is?"

"He usually ditches science by hanging out in the bathroom."

I sighed. "Then that means he's downstairs."

"So?"

"So, that means every second we're standing here talking, every second he's at risk of getting attacked. Is that what you want, Bianca?"

"No! Of course not!"

"Then follow me."

"But . . . Dr. Thorn told us to stay where we are."

"Is either your brother or him we ditch. You choose."

Bianca lowered her head. "Him."

"That's what I thought. Now follow me."

We slowly got off of the walls and made our way to the stairs. There was a large glass window in front of the stairs, and then a balcony. The school sort of reminded me of some ancient palace or something. Anyways, Bianca looked scared out of her own mind. All of the school lights were darkened, but thank the gods that due to the lightning flashing outside, there were shadows in the corners. That way, if we heard anyone, we would be able to blend right in.

We were creeping down the stairs like, you know, the mortals do on Christmas Day to sneak a peek at all of their gifts from Santa Claus. My ring was tight on my finger, ready for me to spring it open if necessary. Bianca's hand was trembling on my arm and I honestly felt sorry for the girl. Then there were more footsteps. I grabbed Bianca and yanked her into the shadows with me and whispered something in Latin.

"Misceo,"

And then we completely blended in.

"What's happening?" Bianca asked, quite alarmed.

"Shh!" I yelled quietly. "Just because you can't be seen doesn't mean you can't be heard."

And so Bianca shut up. I focused my attention back on the two figures in front of me. One was Dr. Thorn, and the other one Mr. Melano, the vice prinicpal of our school. He didn't look too happy. Not that he did in general anyways. Dr. Thorn and Mr. Melano would probably get along perfectly fine if they actually tried. But instead, they were arguing with each other.

"The two children of Poseidon have escaped!" Mr. Melano screamed. "I had it all planned. Knock them out, get the rest of the demigods, and take them to the General. It was so simple. But the daughter of Hades texted her and sent her some ghosts from the Underworld, and then the daughter of Athena rescued them."

"You're referring to Miss di Mio and Miss Peck, aren't you?"

"Who else?"

"Well, there's always the two di Angelos."

Bianca peered over at me and I quickly covered her ears. I would not let her be claimed as quickly as I was. But before they finished their sentence, they stepped closer to Bianca and me. I let go of Bianca's ears in shock. They could smell us. What were you thinking, Margie? REALLLLYYY? Because monsters can smell demigods, you know, and considering we're BOTH children of the Big Three, that just makes the smell all the more stronger. The shadow-blending seemed to keep us momentarily safe, though.

Bianca covered her mouth with her hand, trying to suppress a scream. Her dark brown eyes were wide, and I quickly twisted my ring back into my sword. Luckily, the transformation was a silent one. I knew what had to be done, despite the little voice in my head screaming at me not to. I never listened to that little voice. I never listened to anyone.

I slowly took a few steps out of the shadows, my hand still gripping Bianca's wrist.

"What're you doing?" She whispered. "Do you have a DEATH WISH?"

Dr. Thorn and Mr. Melano's eyes immediately fell upon mine.

"Ah, Miss di Mio," Mr. Melano said. "We were just talking about you."

"Yeah, I heard," And I yanked Bianca out of the shadows and shouted. "RUN!"

And so she did. I had never seen her run so fast in my life. I was behind her by only a few inches as we ran up the stairs together.

"GET THEM!" Dr. Thorn's voice boomed.

Uh-oh.

Not good. SO not good.

Bianca swerved a corner, trying to get Mr. Melano and Dr. Thorn off of our backs. She stopped abruptly at a large air vent.

"Bianca, what are _you _doing?"

"Air vents. They lead to some of the main areas in the building. If we can find one that leads to a bathroom, then maybe we can find my brother, and maybe even your friend, Anna."

Was she crazy? Was she absolutely crazy? I was claustrophobic enough as it was, and crawling in an air vent was definitely on the lists of my things not ever do, right there with taking a vacation to the sea, riding an airplane, climbing a mountain, and standing outside during a storm.

"No," I said defiantly. "No way. No way in two Underworlds am I going in there. No freaking way."

Dr. Thorn was only a few feet away. I could sense it. Bianca sighed, and then pulled me in by force. Since when was she that strong? Bianca grabbed the vent to close it up, but then Mr. Melano reached out and attempted to yank Bianca out of there.

"I don't think so!" I screamed. And I hit him right in the gut. He doubled over and Bianca quickly closed the vent and sealed it back up. She scrambled backwards in the vent and breathed out heavily. We waited until the footsteps went away to say something.

"That . . . was too close," Bianca mumbed under her breath.

"L-Let's just find N-Nico," I said shakily. I felt like I was being closed in already. Never a good sign. "Please. B-Before I start hyperventilating."

With a smirk edged in her voice, Bianca said. "Since when did a daughter of Hades have claustrophobia?"

"Long s-story. Just g-go!" I yelled.

We both began to crawl on our elbows in the air vents I couldn't hear anyone behind us, and that didn't stop Bianca from speeding through the vent like a cheetah. I could barely keep up, and it made it all the more worse with my stupid claustrophobia. The whole building was blackened, sort of like a blackout, but the lightning allowed some light in, whether is was yellow, blue, purple, or some other color. I had seen lightning in varieties of colors. Believe me. I would know best. So just take a VERY claustrophobic and petrified-of-storms Margaret and stick her in an air vent _while _it's storming.

Nope. Not a very good combination. I was freaking out enough as it was, with my sword clinging on the metal-yep, metal. Once again, it's still storming outside and we're technically in the air, so we're technically in Zeus's territory. I was surprised Zeus hadn't zapped me to a crisp yet. The air was getting unusually stuffy, and soon enough, I started coughing. Bianca was getting concerned for me, even though I assued her I was totally fine, she still kept freaking out over me. We neared a room that was completely lit up and I figured it was either the girl's bathroom or boy's bathroom. Bianca was leading the way, so she opened up the vent and landed swiftly on the tiled ground, her legs bent.

"NICO!" She called.

"Gee, thanks for helping me, Bianca," I mumbled. I threw down my sword first and then fell to the tiled ground, much less swiftly than Bianca. I dusted off my black skinny jeans and picked my sword back up, gripping it tightly.

"Oh, my god," Nico's voice. "Is that a real _sword_?"

"Yes, it is. And I need to get you and your sister out of here," I placed them on both sides of me as we began to walk to the exit of the bathroom. Nico looked slightly confused, slightly scared at what was going on, and why I had suddenly came from an air vent with his sister with a sword in my hand. I flung open the door and kept Bianca and Nico close to me. And like I said, that was about to be tested to a fine line. And the first line began to cut when I heard Dr. Thorn's voice again.

"Children of Hades," He said. "Come with me quietly and I won't have to destroy the whole school."

"Run?" Bianca suggested.

I nodded.

"RUN!"

And run we did. We ran all the way back to those stairs, and who was there shocked the Hades out of me. "ANNA! EVIE!"

**This chapter was courtesy of my friend (: R&R, no flames (:**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry it's been awhile, I didn't fall off the edge of the planet, I've just been WAY busy. But I haven't given up on this story, my friend and I just tend to write SERIOUSLY out of order. (: So there should be more updates coming.**

**I don't own PJO.**

**Anna's POV**

Evangeline Peck is amazing. I'm just gonna throw that out there. The next time she wants to borrow my Pegasus, I'll let her, no questions asked.

"So, Mr. Melano, huh? I'm guessing he didn't have that knife at your neck because you failed a math quiz." She said all this while looking at me inquisitively, a slight smirk on her face.

"Well, I _did_ fail the math quiz. But I don't think that was why he was upset."

Percy and I exchange a look and tell her the whole story, or as much as we can figure out of it.

She sighed. "So _that's_ why you're covered in blood. Why is it you're always covered in blood, Anna?"

I make a face at her and suddenly realize something.

"Wait, isn't the school in lockdown? Why aren't you in class?"

"Well, I may or may not have snuck out of class. Well, I didn't exactly sneak, because everyone saw me, but… all you have to know is that I did get out, and it's a good thing too, or you guys would be dead. Thank the gods I'm always around to save your unlucky butts."

"Let's try not to inflate your ego anymore, Wise Girl." I grin at her suddenly, so glad to see her again. "I missed you, Evie. I'm glad you're back."

She wasn't ever gone, not in the sense of the word, but she wasn't exactly with us either.

She smiles back. "I'm glad to be back, Fishstick. Now, I do believe our friend Margie is having a little issue?"

Hades' teeth. I guess I had almost forgotten about Margie's problem.

I glanced at Evie, who was cleaning off her knife with the edge of her shirt, and back to our vice principal.

Percy was the first to speak up.

"I know that no one really wants to say this, but, um, we didn't murder him, right? I mean, it's a little strange how he hasn't disappeared yet."

"I think we're okay. I've seen a couple of really strong monsters that take forever to return to Tartarus. Maybe he's just taking his time."

"Alright…" I say slowly. I had a strange feeling about this. It didn't quite feel right to me. "We should probably find a way to message Chiron first, though, before we help Margie. She'll be okay for a few minutes."

We all agreed, knowing that Margie was more than capable of handling a couple of monsters on her own. Of course, no one voiced the other side of that argument; there might be more than a couple monsters waiting for us. And that would be not very good for us right now.

You see, I can fight fine, but I'm not exactly in the best condition to fight. I got… injured over the summer, and I'm still recovering. Chiron wanted everything to be as normal as possible for us, which was why he sent everyone here while we recovered. I say 'we' because Margie was hurt too. Chiron said that for a while he was worried we were going to die. That tells you right there how epic our adventures are.

But basically, we were still healing, and I'm not sure how many monsters we could handle. I had a pretty bad limp. I can run, but it hurts like Hades. I'm left handed, and unfortunately, that hand was not fully functional at the moment, as proved by the bandages on 4 of my fingers. My left arm also had several deep cuts that had never really closed up, and chose to bleed at extremely inconvenient times.

I looked up at Percy, about to ask if he had any drachmas with him to send an Iris-Message, when something in the shadows behind him caught my eye.

"DUCK!" I screamed right as the knife hurtled through the air where his head had been. I hit the floor just in time to hear Evie answer with, "Duck, goose."

That was one of our infamous inside jokes from this one time that Margie apparently didn't understand that 'duck' meant she had to hit the floor IMMEDIATELY. I'm still not sure her hair has grown back all the way.

My right hand flew to my left wrist, where I keep my bracelet. I pressed the blue-green stone that was set into the middle of the metal band, and it sprang into a three-foot celestial bronze sword. The blade glowed with light, and the dracaenae that had tried to attack was dead before she knew what was happening.

"Thanks," Percy said, looking back at where the monster had been in slight shock. I was surprised too. Normally we would hear something like that before it was so close. We must've been too distracted.

"Guys, we have a problem." I turned to Evie's shaky voice and almost did a double take.

Mr. Melano's. Body. Was. Gone.

Not like, I-Just-Evaporated-To-Tartarus, gone, this was, Hey-A-Monster-Attacked-Those-Kids-So-I'll-Make-My-Getaway-While-They're-Distracted, gone. As in, I could see his bloody footprints leading a path down the hall.

With one confirmative glance, we sprinted down the hall in the direction of those footsteps like our life depended on it. Which it very well might've.

We took the stairs two at a time, and just as I jumped the last five, I heard very familiar voice scream, "ANNA! EVIE!"

_Very nice timing, Miss di Mio_. I found myself grinning in spite of the situation we were in.

"Why, hello there." I looked at the pale, dark-haired girl next to Margie. They even looked like sisters. "So, you're Bianca, I presume? Oh, and Nico."

"Yesss…" Bianca answered, looking at Margie uncertainly. Nico just stared at me. I wasn't sure why, until I realized that I must be covered in blood.

"It's okay, Bianca. This is my best friend, and cousin, Anna Jackson. She can help us. And you've met Evie."

Evie smiled at Bianca in a way that was a little frightening.

"And I'm Percy. No need to introduce me, Marge. You sure do know how to make someone feel like a third wheel," my brother said sarcastically.

"And this is Percy Jackson, Anna's brother. They're twins."

"I see," Bianca said, sounded confused and incredibly overwhelmed.

"They're also demigods, pretty powerful demigods."

I threw her a look. "You already told her?"

"She deserves to know." She glared back at me equally fiercely.

I sigh. "It would be safer if she didn't._ Especially_ right now."

"I know, I know. But I had to." And with that she began explaining everything that happened to her.

"…but I think we lost them, and…Hey, are you guys okay? Anna, you look like you're about to pass out."

"Well, they're two reasons for that. One, I just lost a ton of blood. Two, we killed Mr. Melano already. How is he chasing you?"

"Wait, you KILLED him?" She looks shocked, appreciative, and confused all at once. It's pretty amusing.

"Well, actually _I_ killed him, thank you very much. But he _was_ a monster, and a bad one at that. He had a knife at Anna's neck, and I wasn't about to ask him to politely let her go." Evie was getting defensive again.

"A knife at your neck?" Margie turns to me questioningly and examines the small cut the knife left. Then she seemed to notice how I was covered in drying blood. "Oh my gods. What happened to you guys?"

We fill her in briefly on what happened to us, right to the point where we realized Mr. Melano had escaped.

A look of horror dawned on Margie's face. And, trust me, if a daughter of Hades looks horrified, you are _not_ going to like what you hear.

"So… you took the knife _out_ after you killed him?" She asked faintly.

"Yeah, what'd you expect me to do? This is a school for _troubled children._ Most of the people here are barely trusted with anything sharper than a crayon. I really couldn't sneak in that many knives, and I wasn't going to waste this one."

"Well, my dad told me about these monsters, special monsters, very rare. They're immortal, and very hard to kill. They usually appear in human form, but have superhuman abilities, which would explain how Mr. Melano got from the top floor to Dr. Thorn so quickly. If you do manage to kill one, you _have to leave the weapon in them._ Otherwise, they're fine. It's like they've never been hurt."

"So, basically we went to all that trouble, and Mr. Melano is good as new?" I hoped against hope she wouldn't say-

"Yes."

The universe is conspiring against me.

Because _Margie_ didn't say yes. Mr. Melano's voice came from behind us.

"I see you children have found each other."

"And I hear you're obsessively gathering demigods like a freaky collector on Ebay," I reply.

He merely smirks and says, "I'd watch your mouth, daughter of Poseidon. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve."

And, with that said, he vanishes. Like, from _thin air._ Now you see him, now you don't.

Freaking fantastic.

"Okay guys, we might have to split up-," the words barely come out of Margie's mouth as the windows lighting this stretch of hallway shatter, letting in rain and-

Holy Zeus.

Sky spirits. Demons. Empousa. Dracaenae. To get a clearer picture, I'll just say this: Imagine every monster I hate with a _burning passion._ Now have them all burst through a window, giving us seriously painful cuts from the flying glass.

And there you have it.

In less a second everything is reduced to panic. Fire is everywhere, and all around me I see sharp teeth and claws and fangs. And when I said _fire,_ I really meant_ Greek fire._ One of the most dangerous substances in the world.

Why is it always me?

Bianca ducks and narrowly avoids being hit by a flying chair. She's screaming something about Nico…Crap. Margie explained to Bianca about demigods, but she never got the chance to tell Nico. He was a demigod as well, and was in danger too. I glance around, looking, but I can't find him _anywhere._ Poor kid must've freaked out and ran. Although, I'm pretty sure I would prefer to be where ever he was rather than in the middle of _this_ mess.

I slice off the head of a very angry empousa and make my way to Margie.

"We-" Duck. "Have to-" Stab. "Evacuate-" Roll. "The mortals-" Jump. "And find-" Block. "Nico." And the very annoying demon was sent back to Tartarus.

Somehow she understood me while I tried to keep the monsters at bay. This is why we're such great friends.

"What do you mean, 'find Nico?' He's right… Hades. Can you find him? Do you think-" She broke off as she slide forward to avoid a flying knife. "You could take care of the mortals, too?" She glanced back at me.

"I'll try. If you can take this fight to the roof, I think I can get them out."

We have a system to our madness. Margie's our bait, Evie's our strategist, Percy's the one we turn to when we need backup, and I am the one that is constantly told to 'take care of the civilians', or 'protect the mortals'. That's because I'm the only one in our group who can manipulate the Mist. My old friend Thalia taught me, before she left to be with the Hunters. She tried teaching Percy, but he never got the hang of it.

I continue fighting with them, but remain towards the back, waiting for my chance. I had a plan. A good plan. Okay, maybe not good. Decent. Mediocre. But it was the best option we had.

For once, something goes right. The monsters start pushing us up towards the stairs, which is much easier than making us push them up. There were too many. Some flew, some slithered, and some bit. I had a gross bite mark on my arm from a demon that must've been part snake. I'm pretty sure it was poisonous too, because it _burned._ For a split second there was nothing coming straight at me. I glanced around, and saw-

"MARGIE! BEHIND YOU!"

That's right. Mr. I'm Invincible AND Invisible Melano was back.

He grabbed her by the hair and started dragging her away, up to the door that led to the roof. I was a flight of stairs away, and I could see a sky spirit about to go all kamikaze on me, so I seriously couldn't help. But I couldn't watch her get dragged away.

And then Margie did the most epic thing EVER. I could tell her hand was hurt, but she reached up anyways and sliced her knife through her hair, releasing herself from his grip. It looked like something out of an action movie. And her new hairdo wasn't even very uneven. Talk about a multi-tasker. I almost laughed.

Almost.

But then a dracaenae knocked my full weight onto my injured leg, the one with the limp, and I fell. This was a _determined _monster. It's face had been cut up and it was looking all misshapen, but it was still fighting. Must be expecting a nice half-blood or two for dinner. Unfortunately, it had also knocked my sword out of my hand, and kicked it quickly out of reach. I tried to reach for it with my right hand, but it stepped forward _and put its weight on my flipping hand._

"_OH MY GODS,_ _that was my good hand!" _I think I'm more angry than anything else, which is good, because my body doesn't completely register the pain of my multiple broken bones. So, neither of my hands were completely functional. No need to freak out. It's all good.

I force the automatic panic away and focus on a knife I see lying on the floor, 15 feet away. When I say 'focus' I mean _all of my energy was going into it._ I was already exhausted from fighting, and injured. It would be a miracle for me to pull this off.

And, right as the dracaenae leaned forward to rearrange my face, the knife came soaring through the air and planted itself right in her back.

"YES!"

I didn't even bother to cover up my joy.

You see, my best friend, who recently passed away and shall not be mentioned at this time, was a telepath. I, on the other hand, have telekinesis. It started out pretty simply when I was 4. Everything within a 5 foot radius that was metal would come flying at me. Mom wouldn't let me in the kitchen after a close accident with a very large steak knife. My friend-not-to-be-mentioned started calling me 'The Human Magnet.' I learned how to control it, and now, if I have enough energy, under the right circumstances, I can move almost anything with my mind. Sometimes, when I'm mad, things kind of… shatter. I try not to shatter people though. That would be bad. And messy.

My mom is really interested in these talents. She calls them 'gifts from God', which makes me wonder… are they gifts from _the_ gods? I've thought about it once or twice. Margie has a gift too. She can see people's auras and sense their moods. It's pretty helpful when we first met people.

I realize that the stairwell is eerily silent. Then I see that the fight has moved to the roof, like I hoped. I limp down the stairs, noticing for the first time how badly my injured leg hurts. And I can't use the railing due to my hands. I'm forced to go at a frustratingly slow speed. Just as I'm trying not to slip in a large pool of blood, I hear a REALLY LOUD shriek. I try to ignore what's happening to my friends, but fail. I'm so worried. Why were so many monsters here, for maybe six demigods? It's so strange…

I take advantage of the empty halls, running as fast as I can without shrieking in pain. Here we are. First floor boy's bathroom.

Gods, this is sooo awkward.

I carefully pushed open the door and called, "Nico?"

I heard his voice from the corner. "Hello?" It was suspicious, frightened, and hopeful.

"It's just me, don't worry. I won't hurt you." I walk over to where he's sitting on the ground.

"What's going on?" He whispered. "Why did our vice principal hurt you like that?"

"Listen, it's a long story, and we don't have much time, but I'll try my best to explain. You know Greek mythology? Gods, goddesses, monsters, all of that?"

He nods.

"They're all really. And sometimes gods have kids with mortals, and those kids are demigods, half-mortal, half-god."

"You're a demigod." It wasn't a question.

"Yes. Margie, Percy, Evie, and I are all half-bloods. And we think you and your sister might be too."

"_I'm_ a demigod? So, like, do I get superpowers or something?"

I grimace. "Not exactly. But monsters find us really easy."

"So the monsters out there are Greek monsters?"

"Yes. They can smell us. I'm a child of the Big Three, the most powerful gods: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. I'm the daughter of Poseidon, and because of this, monsters might target me more. So we probably shouldn't stay in one place too long."

He took the hint and we quickly strode out the door.

"What happened to your hand?"

"Monster stepped on it. It'll be fine though, it doesn't hurt that bad."

He looked at the broken, twisted form my hand was in and back at me incredulously.

"After a while you get a high pain tolerance." I answer his unspoken question.

"Now, how opposed are you to breaking school rules?"

…

In the next ten minutes the school had been completely evacuated. I could say exactly how it worked, but let me just tell everyone this: Do not pull the fire alarm while the school is in lockdown. Panic will ensue.

There was general confusion at the fire alarm going off, but due to the smoky smell coming from the stairwell from the fight, I guess the school administration decided to meet whatever mass murderer was in the hallway rather than waiting to burn.

I was able to erase all the confusion from the mortals' minds about the destruction. Manipulating the Mist _that_ powerfully _that_ many times was draining. As soon as everyone was out, Nico and I were at the door to the roof.

I handed him a drachma and grabbed a gardening hose that supposed to be for the rooftop garden. I instructed him on how to send an Iris-Message and tell him to tell Chiron exactly what's happened, and that we may need backup.

Someone had barred the door from the other side, but this was the type of situation that really made me appreciate telekinesis. In seconds that plank of wood was flying from the door handle and smacking a guarding monster in the face. As amusing and cartoon-ish as this was, I had to stop. My energy was super low, _dangerously_ low.

I say this because I have a really high metabolism. So high that I can eat twice as much as your average person and still remain at the same weight. I burn off calories much faster than I can replace them. My blood sugar's a problem too. Assuming we all got out of this alive, we were _so_ stopping at Starbucks and McDonald's.

The other side of the door is not a pretty sight. All my friends are being held captive by monsters. I don't see anyone with a weapon still on them, and Percy's will probably return to him too late to be of use.

We. Are. Screwed.

And then I see the most terrifying sight. Margie is being held right by the edge of the building. If she was pushed…

I'm not even going to finish that thought.

And who was holding her? That's right, say it with me:

MELONHEAD MELANO.

I see _that_ look in her eyes as I meet her gaze, and start saying some useless crap about letting my friends go. Right as he's distracted, she twists out of his grip. She almost gets away. She's so close. And then he kicks her, right on her ankle.

When we got hurt over the summer, Margie broke that ankle. It had just healed. So, judging by her suddenly deathly pale face, he had just knocked the bone out of place. He grabbed her, and she couldn't run.

I feel like crying. I'm surrounded, I feel like I'm going to pass out from blood lose or low blood sugar, my right hand is in fragments, and Margie just got hurt.

"Now, Miss Jackson, just come quietly and there will be no problems for your friends. No one needs to be hurt, Andromeda."

"Anna, NO. Don't you dare-" He covers her mouth.

At her words, I'm thrown back 2 months in the past. In a similarly hopeless situation, with another hurt friend. Elaine… NO. Not now. I will not think of _that._

Margie is twisting and struggling.

Mr. No-One-Needs-To-Be-Hurt turns to Dr. Thorn.

"Is this one disposable?"

"If necessary."

And I scream as he effortlessly picks up Margie and throws her over the top of the building.

…..

It's a reflex, really, jumping to save her. Part insanity, part daredevil.

But here's the thing. Margie's headed straight for the lake. If I get there first I can cushion her fall. Because, falling from this high up and landing on water is like smashing into concrete.

But not for the daughter of Poseidon.

I will myself to go faster and just meet her. I grab her a split second before we hit the water. My aching body feels amazing as I break the surface of the lake. I make sure there's an air bubble around us and swim to the surface.

We both make it out of the water and onto the grass, panting from exertion. The sun's really bright. But wasn't it storming?...

And then the world turns to dark and the only thing I'm able to do before I give into it is reach for Margie's hand.

Because I don't plan on letting her go.


	7. Chapter 7

**So, my stupid computer wouldn't let me edit my A/N on the last chapter, but I thought I'd tell you, I've had the last chapter ready for a couple of weeks, but I haven't been able to update AT ALL. It was annoying me like crazy, but it's given me and my friend lots of time to write. (:**

**Margie's POV**

"ANNA! EVIE!"

The familiar grin of Andromeda Jackson curved upon her lips. She looked better than when I last saw her. Maybe she had gotten a little life back since Elaine . . . no, Margie. Don't you dare. Long story. Let's just say that it's one of the many reasons why I hated Luke with a burning passion.

"Why, hello there." Anna said with even more of a smile. Her eyes flitted towards Bianca. "So, you're Bianca, I presume? Oh, and Nico."

"Yessss," Bianca said back, peering over at me. She looked terrified. I have her a gentle smile. Nico just looked at Anna like she was crazy. Well, she was covered in blood. Why is that when I see Anna, her body is covered in blood?

"It's okay, Bianca," I said reassuringly. "This is my best friend, and cousin, Anna Jackson. She can help us. And you've met Evie."

Evie smiled at Bianca chillingly. Bianca seemed to understand. Evie was there the first day I was attacked along with Bianca. In fact, Evie was the one who warned me, and that's why I stole the scissors off of her desk.

"And I'm Percy," Percy suddenly interrupted. "No need to introduce me, Marge. You sure do know how to make someone feel like a third wheel."

"And this is Percy Jackson, Anna's brother. They're twins."

"I see," Bianca said. I felt bad for her. She seemed so confused and misplaced.

"They're also demigods." I whispered. "Pretty powerful demigods."

Anna glared at me. "You already told her?"

"She deserves to know." I glared back.

She sighed. "It would be safer if she didn't. _Especially_right now."

"I know, I know, but I had to." I slowly began to explain the whole story of us sneaking around class, to Dr. Thorn threatening us, to us escaping and Bianca nearly getting kidnapped, and to us finding Nico in the bathroom and then Dr. Thorn and Mr. Melano finding us once again.

" . . . but I think we lost them, and Hey, are you guys okay? Anna, you look like you're about to pass out."

"Well, they're two reasons for that. One, I just lost a ton of blood. Two, we killed Mr. Melano already. How is he chasing you?"

"Wait, you KILLED him?" I prayed to the gods that they didn't do what I think they did.

"Well, actually, _I_killed him, thank you very much. But he _was_ a monster, and a bad one at that. He had a knife at Anna's neck, and I wasn't about to ask him to politely let her go." Evie said, getting a tiny bit defensive.

"A knife at your neck?" I turned to Anna and saw a tiny cut on her neck. The blood was drying. "Oh, my gods. What happened to you?"

She begins to explain to me what happened to her. So, basically, she drew one of her freaky drawings again, and then she saw the man in the picture, and so then Mr. Melano took Percy and her out into the hallway. They were knocked unconscious, and stuffed in a janitor's closet. I started texting her, and the ghosts I had sent her for help got her out of the closet. But Mr. Melano was waiting for her, and had a knife at her throat. Evie threw a knife into his back, but . . . _took it out._Oh gods. For a daughter of Athena, she seemed pretty stupid to do that.

"So . . ." I began. "You took the knife _out_after you killed him?"

"Yeah, what'd you expect me to do? This is a school for _troubled children._ Most of the people here are barely trusted with anything sharper than a crayon. I really couldn't sneak in that many knives, and I wasn't going to waste this one."

I thought back to one of my many conversations with my father in the Underworld. "Well, my dad told me about these monsters, special monsters, very rare. They're immortal, and very hard to kill. They usually appear in human form, but have superhuman abilities, which would explain how Mr. Melano got from the top floor to Dr. Thorn so quickly. If you do manage to kill one, you _have to leave the weapon in them._Otherwise, they're fine. It's like they've never been hurt."

"So, basically, we went to all that trouble, and Mr. Melano is as good as new?"

Just when I was about to say yes, someone said it from behind us.

"Yes."

It was Mr. Melano. Why couldn't he just DIE ALREADY?

We all whipped our heads around. "I see you children have found each other."

Anna looked _very very angry._"And I hear you're obsessively gathering demigods like a freaky bobble head collector on Ebay."

Mr. Melano smirks. "I'd watch your mouth, daughter of Poseidon. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve." And he disappears into thin air. I hated it when monsters did that. But luckily, I was usually good with finding them.

"Okay guys," I said, taking charge. "We might have to split up-"

Just then, the windows shattered and rain poured into the school. I instinctively covered my face with my hands as glass shards planted themselves in my arms. And in came all of the Underworld. You know, sometimes I wish my dad could control them for once. Every monster anyone could possibly imagine came crawling, slithering, flying, or crawling in through the windows. Why did things like this always happen to me?

Fire is everywhere I look, and it's not just normal fire. It's Greek fire, probably the most dangerous things to both humans and half-bloods, maybe even to the gods.

I raise my sword and watch as Bianca ducks as a chair flies over her head. She's screaming about Nico, but I ignore her for the moment. I'm too focused on killing this stupid empousa. Another bad memory. And I think she remembered me.

"Ah, I see you've gotten your sword back," She hissed. But then she frowned. "But you're minus your silver-haired friend . . . Elaine, I believe?"

That was it.

I screamed and cut her head straight off before she even had the chance to attack me.

Elaine was always a sensitive topic for me. I reached for my left hand wrist and gripped it. I hated my past. I hated everything that happened. Another monster came after me, and I was more fired up than ever. My hand dropped by my side, and I sliced a sky spirit in half.

Anna reached me, and she had a monster with her.

"We-" She ducked. "Have to-" She stabbed the monster once. "Evacuate-" She rolled. "The mortals-" She jumped. "And find-" She blocked a hit. "Nico."

The monster turned to dust.

"What do you mean, 'find Nico'? He's right . . ." But he wasn't there anymore. "Hades. Can you find him? Do you think-" I slid forwards on my knees to avoid being sliced by a knife in midair. "You could take care of the mortals, too?" I glance back at her.

In our little group, we had a plan. I was the bait (of course), Evie figures everything out, Percy is the back-up, and Anna's the one who handles the mortals. She was the only one who could work with the Mist—the barrier so that normal humans couldn't see our demigod world. Thalia, our old friend, taught it to us, but Anna was the only one who succeeded in using it properly.

"I'll try," She answers. "If you can take this fight to the roof, I think I can get them out."

I nodded, and stabbed a dracaena that was in front of me. I started to slowly step backwards, glancing into Bianca's eyes. She had managed to get a weapon. It was a knife made from Stygian iron. I don't know where she got it from, because no one had a knife made from that sort of iron. She had a gash on her arm, but other than that, she appeared to be in pretty good shape. Plus, she was a good fighter. Percy and Evie were holding their ground, as always.

"MARGIE!" I heard Anna scream. "BEHIND YOU!"

I didn't even have time to shriek. Someone gripped my hair tightly and started dragging me backwards. I kicked and struggled, but my hands and ankle were most definitely not the best things to use as self-defense right now. My ankle just healed from having it broken, and my hand still hadn't heal. It was in too many bone fragments to fix. I almost tripped as the person holding my hair started making their way up the stairs.

And then I did something that may have been slightly crazy, slightly stupid.

I was holding my sword still, and I sliced through my hair, the part that was being held. My once beautiful, curly, black, long hair was no more. It was extremely short now, and the rest of it lay on the ground in a clump. I looked over at Percy and Bianca, who had some very shocked expressions on their faces as to what I just did, and immediately knew what to do. They began to lead their fight up the stairs, too, and when Evie finally realized that no one was down on the first floor anymore, she took her fight to the stairs as well. Anna was complaining about something about her hand. I didn't have the time to look. A very stubborn dracaena was looking to rip my head off.

"You're a stubborn one aren't you?" I growled, and continued to slice it.

"Not as stubborn as you." It hissed back.

"Touché."

"But I have to bring you to Castellan."

I knew what she meant. Luke Castellan.

"Ah, but he always wants what he can't have."

And with that, I stabbed her once more, and she disappeared into dust and back to the Underworld she went. I peered back at the door. It was the door to the roof. Anna wanted me to go there, and so I was. I unbolted the door (don't even ask me how I knew how to do that) and flung open the door. It was still storming, thunder rumbling, lightning flashing, and rain pouring. Percy, Bianca, and Evie seemed to get the message and slipped onto the roof as well.

We all went back-to-back in a circle in the middle of the roof. Monsters came from every side and Evie whispered, "Wait for it . . . wait for it . . . NOW!"

We charged towards the monsters. Bianca went straight for a sky spirit, I went straight for an empousa, and Percy went straight to a dracaena. The empousa were good at taunting people. I always got distracted or hurt by what they said, but not this time.

I clashed my sword, and she grabbed my left-hand. Oh gods. I knew where this was going.

"How's your hand doing, mia dolce Angelo?" She mocked, and then smirked. With one tight squeeze, I screamed so loud it echoed off of the mountains in the distance. I dropped to my knees, dropping my sword in the process. Her smirk grew even wider as she raised her hand to slice my head off. Just then, a flur of black hair tackled the empousa to the ground.

Bianca.

She raised her knife to stab the empousa, but the empousa flipped around and pinned Bianca to the ground. She struggled in the monster's grip, her knife still tightly in her right hand. But her wrists were pinned down. There was no way she'd be able to move.

"DISSAPATE!" I screamed, focusing all of my energy. Typically, I had the power to send any monster to the Underworld, but I was too weak. My hand hurt, my head pounded, and my wrist bled.

My wrist. They only wanted me.

Bianca managed to wriggle out of her grip while she was distracted by my screaming, and stabbed her in the back, taking the knife out immediately. It turned to dust.

"Holy crap," She whispered. "Did I really . . .?"

I nodded.

Her face lit up. "AWESOME!" And she continued fighting. I switched my sword to my right hand, and went straight after Mr. Melano. Bad mistake. He had a weapon of his own. Our swords clashed, and he smirked.

"We all know you're hurt, Margaret," He whispered.

I ignored him, and aimed my sword straight for his chest. It deflected, bouncing of, and skid to the across the roof, landing at least ten feet away. I didn't have telekinesis like Anna. I had the ability to sense auras.

"We all know you're suffering."

I wouldn't let him get to him. He swung his sword in the air, nearly slicing my chest open. I jumped back and landed on the ground, slicing my leg. Now I couldn't move. He walked up slowly to me, pointing the sword straight at my face.

"We all know you're going to die."

Why was he telling me these things? Was he trying to hurt me mentally? Because, if so, it wasn't working. I was done with letting myself get hurt mentally. Just when he was about to ram the knife into my face, he yanked me up and placed an arm around my neck, dangling me a little too close to the edge of the building for my taste.

Don't look down, I told myself, don't look down, don't look down, don't look down.

The door came in from the outside, and Anna stepped onto the roof, frozen in shock.

We must've been a mess. I was being held captive by Mr. Melano, Percy by a sky spirit, Evie by a dracaena, and Bianca by an empousa. I looked into her eyes as she said the typical, 'let my friends go' speech. She saw the look in my eyes as I pulled away from Mr. Melano, making a mad dash for Anna. And I was _so close._

But Mr. Melano kicked my ankle.

You see, when Anna and I had had gotten hurt over the summer, I had that ankle broken. I had just been recently able to walk on it. I felt the bone go out of place, and I didn't even have the energy to scream. Instead, he grabbed me again, placing his arm around my neck once more.

"Now, Miss Jackson, just come quietly and there will be no problems for your friends. No one needs to be hurt, Andromeda."

"Anna, NO." I said. "Don't you dare-"

Mr. Melano's hand clamps over my mouth so I can no longer speak. I start struggling and try twisting in his grip, ignoring the ache in my entire body.

Mr. Melano turned to Dr. Thorn. "Is this one disposable?"

"If necessary."

Oh gods. Help me for once.

And with that, he threw me off of the edge of the building.

…

Being thrown off of a three-story school.

Hmm.

Not one of the things I would imagine it to feel like.

It's even more terrifying than they make it out to be in the movies.

Rain stung my eyes so I could barely see, and what was left of my high pain tolerance was thrown out of the window. Not to mention there's a lake right where I'm falling. I wasn't the daughter of Poseidon. I was the niece of Poseidon, and I was going to be crushed if I fell into that lake.

Just then, Anna came up next to me and enveloped me in her arms as we crashed into the water. She made an air bubble as we both struggled to swim upwards, but both of our ankles were hurt. We came up from the lake, crashing on the shore, panting from exhaustion and flip around to face the front. It's sunny now, and I silently whisper, "Thank you." To Zeus and whoever else let me live.

Anna grips my hand tightly before she passes out. Pleasant.

I just lay there for a couple of more minutes, thinking of everything that's happened. My ankle's swollen and my leg is still bleeding, but surprisingly, I felt more alive than ever. Maybe it was adrenaline. I tended to have that at the most weird and awkward times.

Percy, Bianca, Nico, and Evie all came out of the school building. Percy handed me back my sword, and I twisted it back into my ring. Gently sitting up, I slung Anna's arm around my shoulder, our hands still joined together.

"I'm going to Shadow-Travel to my house," I said. "And you're all coming with me."

You see, my house was the house to be. My mother was paid high for her job because she always worked overtime, and we had a pretty big house. Not to mention, she was an excellent healer. I always thought she should've been a nurse rather than a Greek Mythology teacher. But oh well.

Percy nodded and took my other hand. Evie took his, Bianca took hers, and Nico took Bianca's. It took all of my strength to Shadow-Travel this many people.

…..

Let me tell you, my mother was pretty shocked when she saw us all stumble into the house out of thin-air. She immediately stopped checking her papers and stood up, staring at us.

"Not again," She mumbled, shaking her head.

"Hey," Anna spoke up. "At least we're all semi-conscious this time."

Even my mom had to smile. "Anna, mio caro." She hugged Anna tightly and Anna smiled back.

"It's good to see you again, Angie."

That's the thing about my mom.

Sometimes I swear she loves my friends more than she loves me. All of my friends love my mom, and they're always begging to come to my house.

Anyways, my mom made us all sit down at the kitchen table. She handed us some warmed up spaghetti and made us all Italian hot chocolate. As Anna's blood sugar began to get balanced again, we all began to tell my mom the story between the bites of pasta. She seemed slightly concerned as we got to the more violent parts, and as we finished the story, she went to the medicine cabinet and pulled out her medicines and bandages. She handled Anna first, wrapping bandages around her hand and placing a small band-aid on the cut on her neck.

She wrapped up Anna's ankle—the one with the limp—and then fixed Percy. He didn't have any swollen or broken bones, only a few cuts that could be covered with band-aids. Same thing with Evie. But not with Bianca. When she tackled the empousa to the ground to save me, she had broken her pinky finger. My mother tied her pink finger to her ring finger with hospital tape and placed band-aids on the rest of the small cuts.

And then it was me.

She wrapped up my ankle first, and I had a small cut on the back of my neck from the knife grazing it when I sliced my hair off. She also wrapped bandages around the cut on my upper leg. When my mom saw my bleeding wrist, she froze. I avoided her gaze.

I simple wiped it on my dirty jeans and it was ignored.

"All right," My mother said, clapping her hands together. "Now, if you're all going to the dance tonight, then I suggest you get ready." She glanced at me and mouthed, 'fix that wrist'.

I nodded, and dashed up into my room. It was perfectly intact, with its dark purple walls and black chandelier and black everything else. I threw open my closet door, but then stopped when I saw a picture on my desk. It was in a light blue frame.

It was a picture of Anna, me, . . . and Elaine. I guess I better explain it now. Elaine was everyone's best friend at Camp Half-Blood. I was pretty close to her, but Anna was closer. I had known her since I was seven. She was a daughter of Aphrodite, with her silver-blond hair and wacky clothes. But she was murdered. I never forgave myself after that. It changed me completely.

Shakily, I placed the picture face down on my desk.

I changed into a black lacy dress, and put on my trench coat over that. Slipping my skull ring off of my finger and into my pocket along with my cell phone, I walked across my room to the bathroom. I shut the door and locked it.

I then pulled up the sleeve of my trench coat to reveal my mark. It was bleeding, so I took a washcloth and soaked it with cold water, gently washing off all of the blood and rinsing the cloth into the sink again. I walked back downstairs, putting a fake smile on my face. Anna smiled, Percy smiled, Bianca smiled, and Nico smiled.

But mine is fake.

Theirs are true.

And _I_wasn't true. I was betraying them all.

I was a member of the Titan Army.

**Wow. That was freaking dramatic. My friend wrote this chapter. Reviews are incredibly appreciated, they encourage us. And I'd like to know if you guys see any problems or have any suggestions**** (:**


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